Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Professional Services Marketing: Speaking to Attract New Clients

Every consultant, expert, and professional services firm leader needs to establish their thought-leadership in order to stand out from the crowd and be heard above the noise.

There's no room for the "Same-O Lame-O" dry boring MBA PhD guru guy or gal. Their days are over and their influence and impact are declining... daily... and dramatically.

So that means that every day you wait to claim your place among the thought-leaders in your industry and in front of your target buyers, you're losing time AND money.

Don't let that happen to you.

The good news is that independent research with over 200 buyers of professional services shows that at any given moment, between 52%-72% of them are willing to change professional services providers.

Across all service areas, more than 50% of purchasers could be considered Switchers, open to changing providers, ranging from 52% Switchers for Legal Services to 72% Switchers for Management Consulting. ("How Clients Buy" 2009-10 survey)

Additional research from the Wellesley Hills Group entitled "What's Working in Professional Services Lead Generation" surveyed over 700 firms and showed that the #1 source of leads is "Warm Calls to Existing Clients" - No surprise there. If you're great at what you do, the old adage applies - "your business comes from your business."

The #1 source of NEW leads for NEW business for professional services firms, however, may surprise you: it is "Speaking at conferences, trade shows and seminars."

Put these two pieces of research together and the dramatic discovery you'll make is...

You're never more than one good presentation away from generating new clients and new revenue.

So the question is... How successful are you at the #1 strategy of lead-generating speaking to drive credibility, visibility and revenue in your professional services practice?

And do you do it "once in a while" with mixed results or has your professional services firm nailed down a process, a speaking "system" and a targeting methodology that consistently puts you in front of the right groups in the right rooms with the right people to say the right things in the right ways to reliablygenerate new revenue for your firm?

If yes, great - welcome to the 1% club. If not, we should talk. Call me at (610) 716-5984 or drop me an email (david@doitmarketing.com) and let's have a conversation about how you can do a better job of generating more leads, better clients and bigger revenues every time you stand up to speak.